


Arrows Peak

by VinegarWaffles



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 16:22:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28584933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VinegarWaffles/pseuds/VinegarWaffles
Summary: Fanmade statement! I quite like writing horror and tma gives an amazing format to do so.Statement of Shuze Portian, regarding the disappearance of Lindsay Todd.[CONTENT WARNINGS: In depth descriptions of The Lonely, and The Vast. Deafness, partial blindness, insanity, scary themes, implied character death]credit to Rusty Quill and Jonathan Sims for making tma.
Kudos: 1





	Arrows Peak

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Magnus Archives](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/738639) by Jonathan Sims, Rusty Quill. 



[TAPE RECORDER CLICKS]

[JON:]  
Right, let’s begin. Ahem. Statement of Shuze Portian, regarding the disappearance of Lindsay Todd. Statement given August 3rd 1998, committed to tape September 15th 2019. Recording by Jonathan Sims, The Archivist. Statement begins...

[JON, IN STATEMENT:]  
I know this sounds weird but your institute deals with weird things right? I hope I didn’t misread something, is this one of the places that fines you if you waste time? I sure hope not...I'm rambling. I'm sorry. My name is Shuze, Shuze Portian? I’m not sure if you’ve heard of me, I-I’m one of the first best-selling non-binary authors in London. My uh, my books centre around mystery mostly, some have occasionally dipped into horror. That’s the thing though, I wrote my story “Misty August Rain'' back in 96’ but it happened...It really happened I swear. I’m uh... I’m not sure if I’m causing these things to happen or if it’s the books themselves but I haven’t tampered with anything I swear. My two friends, Amy Lonsdale, and Reginald Jacobs, they can vouch for me. What happened in the car that night...It happened.

It started back on April 30th, we were planning this trip for ages, we were going to take my car and go camping up by the border. Highland cows were around the area where we were going to be camping and we all would’ve loved to see them. We never got the chance really. Four of us went, myself, the two I mentioned prior, and our other friend Lindsay. Lindsay Todd. We sent out a missing persons report just the other day and apparently the police’s line went dead when they went over Arrows Peak. That’s the place where we drove over. We drove over the peak, it happened. I keep mentioning how it happened due to the absurdity of the events, it happened and you need to believe us. You might be our only chance at finding Lindsay and maybe, just maybe, glean some sort of semblance from what happened. 

The date came and we were driving, the night was cold, but the headlights illuminated the road just fine. Until we turned onto Arrows Peak. The road that goes over Arrows Peak is technically called Bowmans Avenue, but that seems almost unfitting. Like the name is taunting us, desperately trying to distract from the real name of where we were. We didn’t even need to go over the peak, looking back, there was a perfectly good road going almost straight to where we were camping. I feel like I would’ve remembered that though, yeah? Arrows Peak had always been creepy for all of us, if there was another road there all along...why didn’t we take it?

That’s beside the point though, we turned onto “Bowmans Avenue” and almost immediately a thick fog began rolling over the road. There was no fog advisory the day prior, it was supposed to be clear all day. That’s when it hit me, I hadn’t taken my eyes off the road before then, and I looked back to my friends. They all seemed worried, scratching at their nails and holding their arms awkwardly while staring out the windows. It was completely silent. I actually told Lindsay to stop scratching at the seats of my car, as she had ripped through a bit of the leather seating. She said nothing, but calmly put her hand on her arm. I asked them why we left so late, “Weren’t we supposed to leave in the morning? Bright and early yeah?” I said. I heard my voice echo through the car and empty street, no one replied.

The fog got thickest when we reached the top of the mountain, and we began descending down the other side. We saw street lights flicker out, and when I passed where they were, I was greeted to nothing but trees. The trees seemed to almost entirely block out the sky. I remember Lindsay said something, and I stopped the car for her. She stepped out of the car and began walking into the woods. I very simply went to open my door, and Reginald, who was sitting on the passenger's side, grabbed my arm firmly. I asked him what he was doing and he simply shook his head and looked at Amy. Amy nodded and closed the door where Lindsay got out, and firmly locked it. Amy locked her door as well, and seemed to begin crying. No sound could be heard. I asked Reginald where Lindsay was going and he just shook his head once more, and turned the car key for me. I locked the doors, and began driving down the road once more...I don’t remember why I made this decision. I barely remember thinking at all, I just accepted that she was gone and went on our way. The fog grew thicker and thicker, to the point where we saw it folding over the windshield, we saw no road. I remembered the map and saw it was a straight line down the mountain...and I turned right. I expected them to stop me, or to feel sudden bumps and a crash. To feel anything other than the bitter growing numbness. Instead, the road seemed to continue. I looked back to Amy, and she was still crying, staring out her window so intently, like she saw something familiar, or someone familiar in the distance. Reginald opened his backpack and took out a small grain bar, and ate it. Crumbs fell to the seat but I put up no fuss. No noise could be heard. Complete choking silence.

I turned a few more times, sometimes abruptly and unprecedented, it made no difference though. The road continued wherever we went. We went down the mountain for hours, I saw the clock tick by on my dashboard. 12:30am… 1:00am… 2:30am… 3:00am...then at some point i looked down to see it was 12:30am again. That made no sense, i made a point to check every ten minutes, it was just 4:50am am, it should’ve been 5:00. It was not 5:00. I drew attention to the clock but neither Reginald nor Amy even made any indication that they heard me. Like we were all eternally silenced. I saw their mouths move sometimes, no noise accompanied, no lip smacks or anything of the sort. Amy made the motion of coughing once, tongue out, back convulsing in that telltale way. She coughed, and no noise escaped her mouth. 

I don’t remember when I gave up on the windshield, I stopped looking at the wall of fog at some point, and looked up to see...a light? A light in the distance. It wasn’t much of a light, more like an absence of fog. We followed the absence for 5 more rotations of the never ending clock. I eventually rolled to a stop, and was about to take out the keys and Amy smacked me, harder than she’d ever done before. No sound, no pain. The mark was red, it’s still on my arm...I turned off the car regardless. I got the worst when I went to unlock the car... Reginald put a hand to my shoulder and punched me. I don’t remember how long I was passed out for, but when I came to I was in the backseat of my car. Reginald was driving, and I was against the window where Lindsay once sat. I looked to Amy and she put a hand on my leg, giving it a slight pat and tears fell silently onto the ground. I followed her tears fall and saw a pool of tears on the ground. My car is old, carpeted floors, wooden dashboard. The clock in it might’ve been the only digital thing to ever touch it. Water absorbs in carpet, which is why I haven't changed it. If a spill happens it happens, it’ll absorb and evaporate later. My heart sank when I looked down and saw that up to her ankles was a pool of her own tears. I reached down, I didn’t believe it. It was cool, and wet, but when I touched the carpet it was completely dry. I pulled my hand out of the water and felt it...completely dry. It was almost like it wasn’t there at all. I looked away from Amy, and out the window, and I felt the tears begin falling down my face as well. I saw a figure, running through the fog, alongside the car. The hand that reached for the door handle was almost inhuman. I quickly checked the lock, and saw it was slowly pushing up.

I slammed my hand down onto it, locking it once more. The hand returned back into the fog, and I heard something. In these endless days of driving without sleep and not hearing anything but myself speak, I heard something. “Let me in. It’s cold out here. You left me in the fog. Let me in. It is cold.” It was Lindsay’s voice. Distorted and echoing. I felt it come and echo from every direction, pushing down on me so hard I could barely breathe.

Reginald was the first to pass out, the car swerved, but kept driving, and I made no effort to make it stop driving. His foot must’ve been on the petal, the fog rolled over faster and faster, the gas gage never even ticking down once. Amy went next, collapsing into a pool of her tears which had almost encompassed the entire car. I shivered and rubbed my arms. Then slowly closed my eyes. Silence. When I opened them again...they were gone. I was in the driver's seat, headlights on, parked in a field. I found the road and drove to the nearest lights I could find. There was a nice couple, I believe they were named Damien and Bonnie Wingreave? They saw the state I was in and let me stay. I finally took a second to look at myself. I was soaked in water, up to my neck, and upon looking in the mirror, my eyes were bloodshot, with thin lines of blood coming from my tear ducts. I took a very warm shower, and stayed in their lounge until morning. They stayed with me of course, I tried to tell them about Lindsay but they obviously had no clue what I was talking about. When sunrise came I cried again, relief. Light. I drove back to London on the coast, it took much longer, but it avoided Arrows Peak rather well. 

Right when I got back to London I was greeted by Reginald and Amy at my flat, ushering me inside. They’d been staying at my place for the time i’d been gone. I looked at the calendar and sure enough...three months had passed. I spent three months in that silent, foggy hell, with people who probably thought I was crazy. That’s what I thought at least, until I noticed Lindsay was gone. Immediately Amy asked about Lindsay, and then...about Arrows Peak. I shuddered at the mention of it, and let the story out in full, like what i’m doing here. They nodded to each other and looked at me again. Reginald simply said “Do you remember leaving your flat?” I was struck by realization, and I spoke to him aloud. “N-No” I spoke “I don’t” he then asked me where he, Lindsay, and Amy were before I left. You see we planned well in advance, but plans always come up in bad times don’t they? Amy told me she was not in the car that night, and my heart sunk. She explained to me about how she was in with her mother for the weekend in Wales. Reginald explained to me how he was with his husband Winston for the week. I remembered then. The conversation happened the night before we were supposed to go, Amy and Reginald had plans. Lindsay just said she had plans, i’m not sure what of. What scared me more is when they told me they remembered. They were in the car with me. The seat was still ripped where Lindsay had scratched, the crumbs were still on the seat, the lock was still slightly bent from my interaction with Lin-... whatever was out there. 

Please believe me when they recounted everything that happened in excruciating detail, how they were asking me questions and each other questions. They were both in their own bubbles of absolute silence. They heard Lindsays voice too. I still hear it sometimes when I go driving you know...i’ll feel the lock slowly push up, and i’ll lock it once more. Then she’ll repeat what she said that night “Let me in. It’s cold out here. You left me in the fog. Let me in. It is cold.”

[JON:]  
Statement ends. There is admittedly a lot to go off here. One Lindsay Todd went missing around the time this statement was given, the police did indeed send a squadron out to find her. The police never returned. I looked into the Wingreaves, they confirmed to have harboured Portian for the night of August 1st 1998. Apparently they were not making much sense, and they wanted to help as much as they could. Good souls. Their books were not as...interesting...as I thought they’d be. “Misty August Rain” was about a group of friends who go camping and have to find a mysterious killer who hides in the mist. It was boring as all hell. Jacobs, and Lonsdale both confirmed the events as true, but have refused a follow-up statement. We reached out to Portian, but apparently she went missing short after she gave her statement. Lonsdale simply told us “She went back there for Lindsay. We told her no, but the fog wanted her bad” the rest of the follow up lead nowhere. I am intrigued by the mention of another road, as it is in no maps recorded, not even modern, but the one that was left with the statement seems to have it right near Arrows Peak. It is listed as “Lindsay Peak.” Recording ends.

[TAPE RECORDER CLICKS]


End file.
